In The Name Of Honor (The Book of Boba Fett - S01E07) - Live Action Series

Discuss the latest Chapter! (Discussion)

"You're going soft in your old age!" SPOILERS.

Garsa and the others probably didn't just sustain light injuries...

We've made it! The season finale of The Book of Boba Fett is upon us. It's the third episode directed by Robert Rodriguez. Let's say his previous two entries were certainly not the best episodes. I can say however that his third attempt is by far his best. That being said the man apparently cannot choreograph and / or film proper melee combat. Fortunately we only got one scene in this episode that looked like a few Star Wars larpers met to shoot a YouTube video, the vast majority of the action was fine this time. But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Surprise delivery by Space Fed Ex!

The Book of Boba Fett is certainly a very weird and strange series. The first four episodes were very heavy on the flashbacks and spent a lot of time with the crafting of gaffi sticks or driving lessons for Tusken. The present day storyline was vague at best, not really that much developed. At that time there was hope the present day storyline would be explored thoroughly in future episodes and that the Pyke syndicate cannot be all there is... but then Jon Favreau apparently decided he'd really rather make The Mandalorian season 3. And the next two episodes became season 2.5 of The Mandalorian with some pretty important developments for Din Djarin and Grogu. Let's not forget the major guest appearance by Luke Skywalker in episode 6. So the question was how the season finale can be even more spectacular. In a way it's not, but in another way it is.

The cutest X-Wing pilot in the world. No worries, R2 handled all the driving!

From an emotional point of view episodes 5 and 6 are the true highlights of the series, episode 7 cannot improve on that and doesn't even try to. Instead the season finale doesn't even bother with story and goes all in on the action. And apart from one or two clunky melee combat scenes the action is really good this time. But really, someone should teach Robert Rodriguez how to stage hand to hand combat. The scene where the Gamorreans are defeated and fall down a cliff looked very amateurish.

The action was mostly fine!

But every time the action is mostly CGI and not handled by stuntmen and framed by Rodriguez everything is fine and quite a lot of fun. And fun it was. The episode is, as said, very light on plot. The only major development is that we find out pretty early in the episode what Grogu's choice was. To the surprise of no one he chose Din Djarin and left the Jedi temple. Now there were crazy rumors about Han, Leia and Chewie delivering Grogu to Din, but the reality is much more mundane. Grogu is transported in Luke's X-Wing piloted by R2. Luke didn't bother to fly to Tatooine, he probably never wants to see this place ever again.

The droideka grandaddies (aka Scorpenek Annihilator Droids)

The meat and bones of the episode is the action, of which there is a lot. Really a lot. The setup is short and simple. Boba Fett gets told by the mods that he should man up and not hide in his palace and instead make a stand in the bombed out cantina (farewell, sweet Garsa and most beautiful orange belly button... you will be missed!) and the Boba in this show doesn't tell the teens to shut up, no, he listens to them and decides to make a stand in the cantina, alongside Din Djarin. The other teams watch over the various districts of Mos Espa but things go south pretty immediately as it turns out the crime lords Boba negotiated with didn't honor the deal and sided with the Pykes. So Trandoshans and Aqualish attack the various teams and the Pykes make a move on the cantina after Cad Bane paid it a short visit and suggested Boba and friends flee the planet, an offer which Boba of course rejected.

Hasbro, I have a great idea for a new Star Wars toy! Wait? What? Oh....

The rest of the episode can best be described as giving us various variations of "pew! pew! pew!" followed by classical monster horror, but it's fun actually. We see Boba and Din flying with their jetpacks, taking out Pykes left and right, we get some light comedy moments with the mayordomo who tries to save his life before the big battle (the situation looks dire) and offers his negotiating skills, but of course Boba merely tells the Pykes to get the hell off the planet. Eventually the help from Freetown arrives and the Pykes can be driven back just as Boba and Din are about to be defeated, they are just two men after all. Once the help arrives we learn in a half sentence that Cobb Vanth is seemingly dead. Which would be a complete waste if true, but more about that later.

Look Hasbro, I have this really cool idea for a battle pa--- what? Really? Oh...

Things escalate even further when the Pykes withdraw and send in two massive Scorpenek Annihilator Droids, basically the granddaddy of all droidekas. They have near impenetrable shields and huge blaster cannons. Things look pretty bad. Boba has an idea and makes his exit via jetpack while the others try to survive. The mods suffer a few losses (no one who ever had a speaking part), Black Krrsantan gets shot 2,000 times and limps to safety, one minute later we see him running away from the droids like anyone else. That guy must have some impressive self healing powers. And in all the chaos and confusion Peli Motto arrives with Grogu in her droid riksha, the worst possible moment to tell Din the good news and to reunite Grogu and the Mandalorian. But then the one scene everyone thought would happen does happen... Boba rides his rancor into battle. And he takes on the annihilator droids!

The quick and the dead

What follows is just a big, dumb and very fun action sequence. It is quite a delight to see a massive rancor battle two equally massive combat droids. In Return of the Jedi technology was very limited, almost 40 years later we finally get to see a rancor in all its glory. The beast can take a beating, its skin is extremely tough and even a few direct hits by the blaster cannons merely annoy the monster. With some help by Din Djarin Boba on his rancor manages to take out one of the droids, but it requires quite some effort and Din is about to get smashed to pieces when Grogu uses the Force to incapacitate the droid for a moment, by crippling one of its legs via Force pull. The Rancor then rips the droid in half. I have to say that these moments are just a lot of fun. Seeing the rancor like that is spectacular. I only wonder what Hasbro is thinking. I still wonder if they knew about the rancor in the show or not...Boba then goes after the second droid on his Rancor and that droid is also taken care of but then Boba gets thrown off the beast when Cad Bane enters the scene and frightens the rancor with his flamethrower gadget. The rancor makes off into the distance and Boba is in the dust. Eventually Cad Bane challenges Boba to a duel. And Cad Bane is still faster than his own shadow and shoots Boba, who has his armor of course.

Temuera Morrison makes the best faces

Just when you think Boba is finished that gaffi stick we saw getting crafted for what felt like hours many episodes ago is finally put to good use, as Boba uses it to knock away Cad's blaster, as he's about to shoot him in the head. Boba quickly turns the table and violently stabs Cad with the very pointy end of his stick. Cad lies in the dust now, seemingly dead, but one of his gadgets on his torso flashes and bleeps quite conspicously, so maybe it's not the last time we saw him in live action

The Empire State Building sure looks strange...

Just when you think, ok, that was pretty nice, the episode is not finished yet and after all the pew pewing and chases and daredevil (CGI) stunts the episode decides to pay hommage to good old King Kong, as the frightened rancor is on a rampage in Mos Espa, and without Boba guiding him he's ferocious and unstoppable. Din Djarin tries to take the beast out, but that proves to be near impossible.

Fay Wray sure looked better, and she screamed a lot nicer

We see several scenes ripped straight from King King... the rancor climbs a building, the rancor grabs Din Djarin, only he doesn't want to protect him like original Kong, he wants to eat him. We find out that beskar is stronger than rancor teeth. Good for Din!

No one can resist the cuteness of Grogu!

Din gets thrown around like a ragdoll and things look pretty grim once more when Grogu saves the day again. He approaches the rancor and uses his Force powers to soothe the beast, which peacefully falls asleep. Grogu sure learned a lot of things at Luke's academy, but Luke did mention that Grogu is mostly just remembering all that he was taught at the temple. But a much more powerful Grogu will certainly be a fun traveling companion for Din!

Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee........!

It was about that time in the episode where I wondered if they completely forgot about Fennec Shand. She was in the episode for the first few minutes, she did save the mods from the ambush on them but after that she was nowhere to be seen. It turns out she traveled to Mos Eisley, to be precise, to the hideout of the Pyke leader. And Fennec not only murderizes him, but also eliminates the mayor and the treacherous crime leaders who betrayed Boba Fett. And that's it. Now Boba is the respected and loved daimyo of Mos Espa, people admire him and he and Fennec are pretty much settled now. In the final scene we see Din and Grogu in space, Grogu sitting in his Grogu sized cockpit behind Din in his starfighter. Grogu is nagging Din about something, Din says no... Grogu begs and nags a lot more, by banging his most precious metal ball (handed to him earlier in the episode) against the canopy. And finally Din relents and we find out what it is that Grogu wants... he loves going fast in the spaceship! Din pushes the turbo boost to the delight of the little menace and shoots off into the distance!

Only a flesh wound after all

I usually never skip credits, but I certainly don't skip them when there's a season finale. And sure thing, there is a post credits scene. We see Cobb Vanth in Boba's bacta tank back at the palace with the mod doctor overseeing things. So they didn't waste Timothy Olyphant after all! Good! Now I only hope Jennifer Beals and the other two Twi'leks are stored on ice somewhere, waiting for their turn in the bacta tank.

And that's it! The final three episodes of The Book of Boba Fett were pretty awesome, but for different reasons. The finale went all in on the action after the story heavy previous episodes that developed Din's relationship with his foster child Grogu. There never was any hope to make things even more emotional or dramatic, so the episode went in a different direction and instead decided to go all in on the action and to deliver pure unadulterated fun. That being said I find it unfortunate that the present day storyline in the series was so small and insignificant. It really was just Boba and friends vs some evil drug dealers. No Crimson Dawn connection, no Qi'Ra, nothing. People will probably remember the series for the two Mandalorian episodes, the major appearance by Luke Skywalker and probably that rancor battle scene, which was just awesome.

Hasbro will have their first livestream of the year later today and I'd love to hear from them what they think about it all... chances are they will not talk about it at all and that no questions will be allowed (the stream could even be prerecorded). But I have to ask once more... did Hasbro know about the rancor? If so... why on earth would they launch the HasLab months before the show airs? Why would it not have Boba Fett and saddle as accessory? And if Hasbro did NOT know about the rancor... why do they keep bothering with the license when Lucasfilm trolls them again and again? None of it makes sense.

What else... as mentioned earlier, this was the best Rodriguez episode, I attribute this to the fact that much of the action was CGI and didn't feature actual stuntwork (i.e. hand to hand combat). The few hand to hand combat scenes we got looked quite bad once again though. Robert Rodriguez should probably not return to Star Wars. As a whole The Book of Boba Fett was a narrative mess. It feels as if two parties competed in a tug of war with Favrau finally gaining the upper hand with episodes 5, 6 and 7. The entire experience feels very disjointed and while the Mando episodes were excellent they had literally nothing to do with Boba Fett and should not have been featured in The Book of Boba Fett. They could have just shot a proper Mando season 3 much sooner instead.

I don't think The Book of Boba Fett needs a second season. It doesn't deserve a second season. Boba is best used as a supporting character in the various other shows, but he alone cannot carry a show, not the way he is characterized in the series. The problem is that all the cool Boba Fett things are pretty much covered by Din Djarin, so Boba needs to be something else. Sadly, that something else is not too exciting. But at least Boba got his big action scene as he rode his pet rancor into battle. And it was a quite glorious moment indeed!

I hope future Star Wars shows have a much clearer focus and know much better what it is they want to do. While I understand the idea of the connected series universe, where characters from one show will appear in other shows, the focus should always be on the main characters. And Boba was (almost) completely absent from his own show for two episodes. Still, the series will probably be remembered fondly, the final three episodes were spectacular and more than made up for the somewhat weird Lawrence of Arabia / Dances With Wolves mash-up of the first four episodes. Seeing Luke Skywalker build his Jedi temple and finding out Grogu's choice so early was very welcome. There never was much doubt that Grogu would be reunited with Din, but waiting for a proper Mandalorian season 3 would have been a long, long time.

Some random observations... when Cad Bane remarks that Boba has grown soft with age he does speak to a Boba who is approximately 39 years old, according to the canon timeline, which is just funny. Temuera Morrison is about 20 years too old for the role, but it's ok. I did wonder after the episode how Jabba's Rancor could be killed by a portcullis so easily when the beast can withstand massive blaster shots and a vicious beating by droids. One mere door should hardly scratch the beast. But seeing the full might of a rancor was of course a lot of fun, so I don't mind the inconsistency. The mods really are out of place on Tatooine. Entirely. Still, I would not mind a Sophie Turner mod action figure with scooter (hers is the one with the many mirrors). The Star Wars version of cyberpunk Power Rangers never really fit in though. At least we didn't get a slowmo chase scene this time. The series was, on the whole, very toyetic once again. It's sad that there never will be a (Black Series) Rancor now with Boba Fett riding it. THAT would have succeeded after the finale today. But it's also sad that we probably won't get annihilator droids, or Garsa, or many of the other colorful secondary characters. Peli Motto and her pit droids need their set as well... well, maybe 2025. Maybe Hasbro should focus more on actual new figures from current shows instead of repacking and repainting old figures.

And that's it. Overall I rate the episode an 8/10, very light on story, very big on fun action. I enjoyed the shootout, the rancor battle vs two annihilator droids, the short but brutal duel between Bane and Boba Fett, the King Kong hommage and all of Grogu's antics of course. That we got a cantina shootout once again as the season finale is a bit... samey, after getting that in The Mandalorian, maybe the next big showdown should not involve a cantina. Let's look forward to Kenobi and of course The Mandalorian season 3. Until then!